Sebastián Beccacece

Beccacece played for Argentine amateur club Juan XXIII as a right back when he was teenager. After failing to have success as footballer, he involved in football management, beginning at Newell's Old Boys football academy in 2001.

Since 2003, aged twenty three, he worked as Jorge Sampaoli’s assistant coach, joining alongside him to Peruvian side Sport Boys from Callao. After four years at the Peruvian football, in 2008, they moved to Chilean top-level club O'Higgins, staying there until August of the incoming year. Weeks later, they signed for Emelec, Ecuadorian giant.

In 2010, following the World Cup, he had the possibility to work with Marcelo Bielsa in the Chile national football team. Nevertheless, Beccacece refused the offer and remained as Sampaoli’s assistant. Then, in December, they returned to Chile, joining powerhouse club Universidad de Chile to face the 2011 season. There, together reached the two league titles (Apertura and Clausura) and the Copa Sudamericana.

Following their success at Universidad de Chile, in 2013, Beccacece and Sampaoli were signed by the ANFP to led the Chile national team, finally arriving there after rejecting Bielsa’s offer.[2] At Chile they achieved the qualification to the 2014 World Cup finals and the first ever Copa América title in the country’s history. In 2015, they resigned from the Chile national team amid the FIFA corruption case where they were involved alongside Federation’s president Sergio Jadue.[3]

Beccacece with Universidad de Chile’s 2011 Copa Sudamericana champion team at Moneda Palace with the then president Sebastián Piñera.

On 11 January 2016, after putting an agreed end to his years as assistant coach of Sampaoli, Universidad de Chile signed him as first-team coach, replacing former coach Martín Lasarte.[4] During his first days at the club, the team received as signings the Argentine playmaker Luis Fariña on 12 January,[5] and a week later, the Chilean international Gonzalo Jara[6] and the also Argentine Fabián Monzón from Calcio Catania.[7]

On 24 January, in his second league game since his debut for this competition at the bench (a 1–1 away draw with Deportes Antofagasta), Beccacece impressed following the team’s 8–1 home thrash over O'Higgins at the Estadio Nacional.[8] After of that great victory nevertheless the team reaped three draws and one loss against Palestino (2–1). During February’s first days, the team was eliminated of the Copa Libertadores first stage by Uruguay’s River Plate F.C., which was his first failure and it meant being the target of criticism from the press and the team’s supporters.[9] On 28 February, the 4–1 away victory over Cobresal would be a balm of the team’s moment.[10] Following a 0–0 draw with Unión Española and two losses (3–1 with Universidad de Concepción as local and 5–4 against Santiago Wanderers as visitors), he back to draw, now in the Chilean football derby with Colo-Colo, which was again a goalless where both teams were criticized for its game level.[11] Finally, Beccacece would end in the tenth place with three wins, seven draws and five losses and his continuity was heavily questioned during the Copa América Centenario break.[12]

For the purpose of the 2016 Torneo Apertura, the club hired to Luis María Bonini as fitness coach[13] and were appointed ten players which joined the club, between the most important figured Jean Beausejour from archi-rivals Colo-Colo, Christian Vilches from Atlético Paranaense (former Colo-Colo too) and the Argentine playmaker Gastón Fernández from Estudiantes de La Plata.[14] He began the tournament losing 1–0 with Wanderers at Valparaíso, and drawing 1–1 as locals with Deportes Antofagasta on 7 August, date where again his continuity was questioned.[15] Nevertheless he would return to victory, reaching two consecutive triumphs with San Luis de Quillota (4–2) and Universidad de Concepción (3–1), that this time saw their end on 27 August after being defeated 3–0 by Universidad Católica.[16] Highlighting, that game he kicked a freezer next to the bench during the moment that the referee Roberto Tobar took penalty which finally was Católica’s third goal.[17]